Colby's Favorite Toy

Recently, I discovered that Colby has a favorite toy:



Yes, that thing is pretty much as nasty as it looks. My brother's dog donated this toy to Colby back when I adopted him. Of course, it was in much better condition when we first received it. Just in the past few weeks, Colby has really taken a liking to playing with...and destroying...this toy, as you can see.



Apparently, destroying this toy is hard work.



I think this toy has become somewhat of a security blanket for Colby. I've caught him curled up with this toy on many occasions. Sometimes he tries to bring it into the bed when we turn in for the night, which is where I just have to draw the line. The thought of waking up with that nasty thing in my face is enough to give me nightmares. I'm already dreading the day when this toy becomes a pile of chewed up string and I have to explain to my sweet little Colby that toys aren't meant to last forever...

Five Years Later

It's hard to believe it's been five years.



Please join me in praying for all of those people who are still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina, five years later.

This Ain't Sea World, This is Real as it Gets!

CCN Nurses Go Coastal 2010

THE PLACE:

A cozy little condo in Gulf Shores.



We immediately fell in love with the condo when we saw this huge fan hanging on the wall with push pins. I mean...why not?! For the remainder of the trip, we refered to it as "The Perfect Fan".



The condo also had some great views. Here is a view of the beach from our balcony.



And here is a view of the pool from our balcony, complete with two old geezers wading in it.



THE PEOPLE:

Steph A. (aka "Blondie")



Steph G. (aka "Other Steph")



Megan (aka "Luna")



Beverly (aka "Bev", "Beaverly")



And, of course, me.



I really enjoyed getting to lay on the beach and enjoy its beauty. The beach was absolutely beautiful--no oil in sight, and the water was super clear.



One of the highlights of the trip was being on a boat...like Leo. A kind sailor gentleman saw the importance of having a photo shoot on a boat, so he allowed us to jump on his boat for a quick photo shoot. Before getting on the boat, we knew it was important to ensure our safety while on the boat. Never mind the fact that we never left the dock...



Here are the pictures of us on the boat, which was appropriately named "Scandal".





We all had a blast on our beach trip. Here are some shots to prove it.







And of course, we got our annual toes picture.



Another CCN beach trip tradition is for us to have a photo shoot on the beach on the last evening of our trip. For this task, we recruited Beverly's friend, David, to be our photographer. As luck would have it, David has a degree in photography, so we were quite pleased with the quality of the photos.







Because these pictures were so good, a little creative editing was done to make the pictures even more awesome. Thanks Beverly and Ali!





Because we are super cheesy and consider ourselves a CCN family, we decided that we needed some pics of us walking down the beach holding hands.





And now, I present to you the 2010 CCN Nurses Christmas card:



What a great beach trip! Looking forward to CCN Beach Trip 2011!

Week in Review: A Broken A/C, a Lunch Date with Three Two-Year-Olds, and Baby Penelope Arrives!

What a crazy week this has been! Sit back and relax while I present my week in review, with all of the highs and lows it has brought.

It's no secret that this has been a particularly warm week. Pretty much every day this week, the high temperatures have been in the upper 90s, with heat indexes near 105. Probably the hottest week of the year. A week with record-high temperatures, for sure. So what's the worst possible thing that could happen during a week like this? You guessed it--a broken A/C. Just my luck. I came home from work on Monday night to a very warm house and a dog panting from heat exhaustion. Luckily (if you can consider anything about this situation lucky), I am still under my home warranty contract for two more months, so I immediately called my home warranty company. I was told that I would be contacted the following day to set up an appointment. I figured I would have one night with no A/C, and that someone would come out the following day to fix my broken A/C. Sometimes I really surprise myself with my own naiveness. I was contacted the next day, and an appointment was set up for Friday. Yes, Friday. As in 3 days from then. As in 3 more nights with no A/C. I prepared myself for a hot and miserable week. I opened the windows, I set all of my ceiling fans to full-blast mode, I pulled out every fan I own, and I put on the least amount of clothing I could wear without horrifying the neighbors. Colby also braced himself for a hot week, and he looked completely miserable all week long:



I must say that I have never been as happy to wake up and leave for work as I was on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. UAB Hospital really has excellent A/C service. I almost was sad to leave the hospital after working 12-hour shifts both days...almost.

I am happy to report that an A/C guy showed up at my house first thing this morning. He found that I had a cracked fan blade that was causing the motor to overheat. He replaced the fan blades, the motor, the capacitor, and added freon, because I was also really low on freon. Thank goodness for that home warranty! And if my A/C guy's boss happens to read this, please give that guy a raise!

So I have a cool house again, just in time for next week's cold front...

When the temperature inside your house is close to 90 degrees, you tend to go on a lot of outings to cool places. On Tuesday, I decided to take my sweet two-year-old nieces and nephew, Piper, Rosemary, and Henry, out to lunch while their little sister was being born. They deserved something special that day, and Auntie Ann was ready to make them feel special! Now of course I didn't tackle this outing on my own--the kids' nanny, Stephanie, came along with us. We all had a great lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant. While I think the kids enjoyed their quesadillas, their favorite part of the meal were the chips and salsa.

Here's Piper enjoying her outing:





Here's Henry, obviously having fun on our lunch date:







And here's Rosemary enjoying her lunch:





After a big meal, the kids were completely exhausted. On the way back to their house, I told Piper that she looked tired, and Rosemary wanted to get the point across to me that she was tired, too:



On Tuesday, after threatening to come for weeks, Piper, Henry, and Rosemary's little sister, Penelope, was born on her scheduled c-section date. She weighed in at a healthy 7 pounds 14.8 ounces, and she and her mom are both doing great. I was afraid that I wouldn't have room in my heart to love a new baby in the same way that I love Piper, Henry, and Rosemary, but as soon as I saw little Penelope, it was love at first sight! I am so proud to be Auntie Ann to this beautiful little girl.

Casino Night at Church (Because That's How Catholics Roll!)

While attending Mass at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church a few weeks ago, I caught wind of a big upcoming event--Casino Night. There were Casino Night flyers posted in the foyer of the church, there was information about the event printed in the church bulletin, and the priest even made an announcement about Casino Night before the end of Mass. I knew Casino Night was a huge deal, and there was no way I could miss out on the fun.

A few days later, I began telling my co-workers about the upcoming Casino Night at my church. To say that they were shocked and appalled is a bit of an understatement. I'm not sure what shocked them more--the fact that my church was hosting Casino Night on the church premises, or that beer and wine were included in the ticket price. Much to my surprise, one of my co-workers, Vivi, was really interested in attending. So she recruited one of her friends, and we all went to Casino Night on Saturday night.

So we headed to the church, and entered the Social Hall...I mean the "Casino"...for Casino Night. Here's Vivi and me at the entrance to the "Casino":



I was quite impressed. There were tables set up in the "Casino" with games like Black Jack, Poker, Roulette, and Craps. There were even professional dealers at these tables. There were also a few slot machines. Let me stop here--in case any of my readers are absolutely horrified at this point--and explain that we weren't exactly playing for money. At the beginning of the night, we were given $1000 in play money. As you played the casino games you won chips, and at the end of the night the number of chips you earned determined the number of tickets you got to place in the prize raffle. Hopefully I have eased a bit of the horror now.

Anyway, as soon as we walked into the "Casino", we felt like we totally fit in.



Sometimes it's nice to just feel really young.

We played a few games and drank a little wine, and then we decided that I needed to take a picture with the Ace of Spades:



So maybe we drank a little too much wine... Here's a re-do, with Vivi's friend T.C. looking a little distracted:



All in all, Casino Night was a blast. I was a little sad when it was time to leave.



But the best part about Casino Night was knowing that Jesus was right there with us all night.

Colby Sits!

Ever since I adopted Colby eight months ago, I have been trying to teach him to sit on command. For the most part, it's been a losing battle. I would point at him and say, "Colby, sit!", and he would either jump on top of me, lay down and fall asleep, or just run around the house like a fool. But the other day, I was in the kitchen shredding some cheese and cutting up some cooked chicken in order to prepare dinner, and Colby was going absolutely insane at my feet. Cheese and boiled chicken are two of his all time favorite dog treats--probably because they're really not dog treats at all! I decided to seize that great opportunity to teach Colby how to sit once and for all. I saved a portion of the chicken and the cheese for dog training purposes, and continued cooking. While dinner was in the oven cooking, I began a very intensive training session with Colby. To begin with, I got some very blank stares when I told him to sit. And then he would go crazy whenever he caught a glimpse of the chicken or cheese. I began by holding the treat in one hand and then using my other hand to push his bottom down so that he was in a sitting position whenever I told him to sit. I did not give him the treat until he was in a sitting position. This process continued for several minutes. Pretty soon, all I had to do was tap his bottom and tell him to sit, and he would sit and receive his treat. And then he progressed to sitting whenever he saw my hand moving toward his backside. And then, finally, I held the treat in one hand, told him to sit and held my other hand out, palm-down, only moving it ever so slightly in his direction, and he sat!!! And he continued to stay in the sitting position until I handed him his treat! I was so proud of him that I could've cried at that moment. And he continues to sit when I tell him to do so! Of course he is more enthusiastic about sitting when there is a treat involved, but for the most part, he will sit whenever I ask him to.

I am one proud Mom. My little furry child has hit a big milestone! It only took eight months...and countless blocks of cheese...and numerous bags of dog treats...but my smart little dog finally sits on command! I couldn't be any prouder. Maybe now we will work on shaking hands (or is it shaking paws?). Move over, Cesar, there's a new dog trainer in town!